Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com’s books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you’re on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you’re here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too.
Rental House by Weike Wang
While Weike Wang was studying chemistry at Harvard (where she switched from a pre-med track to earning a doctorate in public health, focusing on cancer epidemiology), she was pursuing her MFA in fiction at Boston University (while also tutoring MCAT students). Her thesis would become her acclaimed debut novel, Chemistry, followed by Joan Is Okay and now Rental House (Riverhead–she and mentor and friend Sigrid Nunez share the same publisher.) Among her many accolades: a PEN/Hemingway, Whiting award, National Book Foundation 5 under 35, O. Henry Prize, Aspen Words Literary Prize finalist, and the Beltran Family Award. She teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, where she’s the Craven Writer in Residence in the creative writing program, Columbia, and Barnard. (Her chemist husband also teaches there.)
The China-born, New York-based author also lived in Australia and Canada; got as far as taking the MCAT and entertaining offers before taking a year off during which time she discovered tequila and tracked rejections for short stories on Excel; has a dog named Biscuit; probably wouldn’t be friends with people who own second homes, is a chronic oversharer, and waits 10 seconds before sending a text; first had omakase at Domodomo in NYC; read Anne of Green Gables growing up, the first novels she read beginning to end in English (she wrote an AoGG VR experience for Shouts & Murmurs inspired by a Harry Potter VR experience).
Good at: Math and science.
Bad at: Naming characters, linking things on Instagram.
Likes: Animals and dumb humor, pop-up holiday cards and digressive group chats, port
Not so much: Diarying/journaling, clinical research.
If she weren’t an author, she might be doing: Biostatistics.
Too much of: Shen Yun flyers.
Not enough of: Wordle winning streaks. Her letter-perfect book recs below.
The book that:
…made me weep uncontrollably:
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. The ending of this book made me cry. The story builds slowly but the momentum at the end. Wow. I felt enveloped in a wave.
…I recommend over and over again:
Rivka Galchen’s Little Labors. I often gift this book to friends who are expecting. It is slim, brilliant, and self-contained. Each mini-essay is a pearl.
…made me laugh out loud:
Mira Jacob’s Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations. And cry and smile and think I can’t believe this is a graphic novel. I can’t believe how amazing Jacob is at writing, illustrating, and storytelling.
…everyone should read:
Sigrid Nunez’s A Feather on the Breath of God. No book did more for me in graduate school and beyond than this. It taught more what a novel could be. It made me feel seen and a better writer, reader, and person.
…I read in one sitting, it was that good:
J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. Severely shocking and unrelenting. I would argue that this is as close to a perfect novel as one can get in 220 pages.
…I’ve re-read the most:
Amy Hempel’s Tumble Home. In my novella class, I always teach this book. My copy is so dog-eared and marked up. There are paragraphs that I have memorized but still I re-read and re-read.
…I consider literary comfort food:
Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life. I find reading about writing from other writers to be a comfort. Many days writing feels impossible, and books like these make those days better.
…is a master class on dialogue:
Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women. For great dialogue, I read plays. Plays rely mostly on dialogue (and stage actions) to get across what prose can do in exposition. These three women will surprise and delight you! Other plays with stellar dialogue: Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin the Sun. Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County. John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable.
…I never returned to the library (mea culpa):
Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted. The café by my apartment has a shelf of books that customers can borrow. I picked this one up while waiting for my order and never gave it back. Hooked by the first page.
…broke my heart:
Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic. Written from the collective we, the novel reads like a chorus. Lyrical, achingly beautiful, and heart-breaking.
…surprised me:
Victoria Chang’s Obit. I am no poet nor do I have a good sense of how to read poetry. But this book of poetic obituaries, of one’s journey through grief, astounded me.
…has the best opening line:
Albert Camus’s The Stranger. Depending on the translation, it is either “Maman died today” or “Mother died today.” I first read this book in high school and didn’t get it. I read it again in college, and the absurdist voice clicked. The Stranger inspired my protagonist in Joan is Okay.
Riza Cruz is an editor and writer based in New York.